Kolkata
A first-year student of Jadavpur University’s (JU) Arts Faculty was allegedly molested by a non-teaching staffer on campus on Friday afternoon, prompting Vice-Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee to order a probe on Saturday.
According to a complaint submitted by the survivor’s friends to the V-C on her behalf, the incident took place at 3.20 p.m. when they were sitting at the staircase on the seventh floor of Technology Bhavan. The complaint stated that the accused staffer allegedly shouted at them and asked them to go downstairs. Following this, her two friends immediately rushed downstairs.
The accused then allegedly asked the survivor to accompany him to a classroom to explain why he does not allow anyone to sit there. He took her to the sixth floor where there were no lights. He showed her some locked rooms and told her that laptops had been stolen from there. He also asked her number, name, and department, the complaint said.
The complaint stated that the survivor told him that she would not sit there in future. When she turned around to leave, he pulled her by her hand and touched her inappropriately. In self-defence, she pushed him back, left the spot, and narrated the incident to her friends.
A little later, the accused acame down and started talking to the security guards. When she confronted him, he started defending himself aggressively. He kept asking for proof from her friends and kept on saying that “this was a small issue that was being unnecessarily blown out of proportion”, the letter read.
In the letter submitted to the Vice-Chancellor, 17 students who signed it also alleged that the accused had shown objectionable behaviour towards many students in the past.
They have demanded that the complaint be immediately forwarded to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and action be taken at the earliest.
The students also demanded that the Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GS-CASH) be immediately implemented on the campus for the safety of women.
Soon after receiving the letter, Mr. Bhattacharjee forwarded it to the ICC and also directed the committee to launch an immediate probe into the matter. “This is a serious complaint. Based on the prima facie evidence, the accused should be defunct immediately from entering campus. The complaint letter be sent to the ICC for investigation and necessary action,” he said in his written note.
Published – November 02, 2026 01:14 am IST
